Lupe Fiasco has been an outspoken critic of mainstream politics for pretty much his entire career. He was in a documentary about Howard Zinn, he wears shirts like the one above (Frad Hampton was a prominent Black Panther killed by the US government) and he has criticized Barack Obama‘s foreign policy on multiple occasions. Hence, it stands to reason that someone would think he’d make the perfect performer for Obama’s inauguration concert!

Lupe Fiasco was escorted off the stage of the StartUp RockOn inaugural concert in Washington, D.C. yesterday after spitting the following verse of his anti-war song “Words I Never Said”:

“And these the same people supposedly telling us the truth/ Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn beck is a racist, Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say sh–/ That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either/ I’m part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful.”

The whole thing being an ostensibly progressive affair, the concert’s organizers had to release the following statement:

Lupe Fiasco performed at this private event, and as you may have read, he left the stage earlier than we had planned. But Lupe Fiasco was not “kicked off stage” for an “anti-Obama rant.” We are staunch supporters of free speech, and free political speech. This was not about his opinions. Instead, after a bizarrely repetitive, jarring performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied, organizers decided to move on to the next act.

Do you hear that? He didn’t get kicked off the stage for criticizing the president. He got kicked off for criticizing the president in a boring and repetitive way. Got it.